K-drama have become very popular in the global arena in the past few years. For example, According to reports from Netflix, their viewership rose sixfold from 2019 to 2022. Most of the people spent a great amount of time on Korean content during the COVID-19 pandemic era. Millions worldwide saw K-drama making them the most viewed non-English content on the platform. Perhaps, it is the emotional depth of such dramas that draws people’s attention as they continue to provide emotional expression along with hope for the future when people stumble through difficult times.
Watching Korean dramas such as Squid Game or Crash Landing On You may lift your mental health, According to Jeanie Chang, Therapist and Scholar. Chang is a Korean American professional who believes that such shows not only entertain but also help viewers process their emotions and trauma. It helps participants connect with emotions that they might experience in the plotlines- “dealing with grief, falling in love for the first time,” – he said. These dramas touch upon universal themes about family pressure, trauma and hope. This makes them relatable to people all over the world.
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Chang, who is a native of Seoul but raised in the U.S., remarks that viewing K-Drama has enabled her to reassociate with her Korean origin. She used to detest her cultural identity but found that K-drama made her something different regarding her dear old cultural identity and emotional control. She emphasizes the fact that the messages from K-dramas are universal and help all those watching deal with their psychological problems irrespective of culture.
Chang explains further that mental health affects the way you feel and deal with other people. It is very common for K-drama to show different kinds of mental struggles, such as trauma and emotional conflict. Hence, seeing the characters working through their conflicts allows for insights and emotional catharsis, thus making K-dramas a source of emotional support.
One such viewer is an American school teacher Jeanie Barry. She began to watch K-Dramas after a family funeral. A friend recommended the series ‘It’s Okay to Not Be Okay’. This series helped Barry process grief and depression. “It struck a chord for me,” Barry said. She found herself grieving deeply for the first time and the show gave her hope that there was light at the end of the tunnel. Since then, she has watched 114 K-dramas which have made her soften her heart and embrace emotions. Barry prefers K-dramas over English-language shows, as he feels they offer a vivid emotional experience.
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Erin McCoy, another viewer who watches K-drama in America said that K-dramas help her deal with long-term depression. McCoy has been dealing with these feelings since she was a teenager. She described: “I never used to get emotional much.” Watching K-dramas allowed her to feel and express emotions all over again. “There are so many highs and lows in every one of them,” McCoy explained. She could connect with her feelings again by carefully observing the characters’ emotions, which alleviated her depression.
Experts say that K-dramas can serve as a source of “Art Therapy.” Im Su-geun, a psychiatrist in Seoul, believes that visual media like K-dramas may be a way through which people can get new outlooks on their problems. Art therapy is a technique pioneered in the 1940s wherein patients are subjected to different creative activities to address their emotional problems. However, K-dramas cannot be equated with professional treatment. A therapist may, however, recommend a particular show that is pertinent to the experience of the patient for emotional healing.
K-dramas are not just for entertainment. As therapists and viewers agree, the series offers psychological help, aiding the public to overcome personal problems by starting to process whatever has hurt them and seeking hope in life. Hence, K-dramas are a very unique source of comfort and healing.
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